The concept of the world being run by a set of rules dates all the way back to the most ancient of civilization. In the competitive world of Magic: The Gathering, there is a constant banning of players whom create a toxic environment for the rest of the players. Prior to every competitive event there are precautions to deter players from engaging in negative behaviors:

• Players sign the player agreement
• Submit deck list
• Receive a verbal statement from the head judge at the player meeting

Recently I surveyed a group of professional Magic: The Gathering players who are currently grinding either the Grand Prix or SCG Circuit (both are incredibly high level, competitive events) about their feelings in relation to cheating within the game. I had the questions range from making them answer as both an observant and as a participant. I did not have the pleasure of collecting answers from a random sampling; convenient sampling was the only access I had.

89% of those surveyed reported that they have witnessed another person cheating either in a game against themselves or another person. Thankfully, I found that out of those same people, 83% reported taking an action to stop this behavior. There were not many that elaborated on why they did not do anything, but those that did intervene explained the particular situation in detail. When becoming involved in a situation like this, the factors tended to resonate in the participants, perhaps a result of a stressful and delicate situation. One respondent stated that “… [they] did not want to get involved, period.” This not only negatively impacts just that single game as once a person believes that they are able to get away with negative behavior, they may be encouraged to do it again.

All of the respondents who participated supported the crackdown on cheating that has been occurring over the past few years. Generally, just grinding events themselves, regardless of success rates, demand a substantial amount of effort. There are bad beat stories shared between matches but to lose a match as a result to an opponent’s unfair advantage can leave a sour taste in anyone’s mouth. However, the community’s negative reaction on social media creates a toxic environment within itself as it brews up hatred when all the facts may not be present in the conversations being had. When respondents were asked about their feelings towards the communities’ reactions, the whole group was pretty divided as social media has given every complaint a forum which leads to the traveling of incorrect information.

When a player is banned there are an array of results which impact the community. 61% of respondents said that either their friend or they themselves have been accused of cheating during their career in Magic. While there are many accusations, when a player is actually banned a majority of those surveyed reported that they look over the evidence themselves and go to social media before developing an opinion. There are many downsides to this as not everyone does research before aggressively pushing their opinion onto others which creates an uninformed population.

While more than half of respondents believed that most cheating resulted from being given the opportunity to do so, there were still those that also believed that a large amount of cheating was premeditated and had a strategy to it. While this is purely speculation, there is also the thought that within the teams that test for more competitive events, they keep their secrets within the groups in relation to if cheating occurs. More than 87% of respondents do not believe that those who are the more successful players, as a whole, are innocent of consistent cheating. This would mean that during any person’s career, in these players’ eyes, no one is free of fault. While we are all just humans, does that excuse this behavior?

The sample from the community that I observed reported that a majority believed that those who issue the bannings are justified in doing so, yet roughly 43% of respondents agree with the amount of time that is given is sufficient. In response to this question, Ken Crocker responded, “as in suspension time? Yes and no. For first time offenders, I think some time away from the game to reevaluate and reassess one’s life choices is important if they are going to actually be rehabilitated. However, for habitual offenders, I think harsher penalties might be necessary….” which coincided with many others’ responses to this. Another respondent commented that “...Sometimes I wish people would stay out of the game permanently’ as habitual cheaters consistently bring toxicity to the community and show others that even if they cheat, the consequences are not disaster.

As for my own opinion on this topic, I believe that there should be a more open dialog within the community about cheating. Currently, this is not possible as a majority of the people become extremely aggressive or defensive which does not allow for a reasonable ground for people to meet on. It seems that the idea of group-think in this situation holds a substantial amount of weight. While I believe that there has been a good initiative to crack down on this over the past few years, the players themselves have the ability to change the environment to become healthier and push this toxicity away.